HC allows vehicular access to Matheran thrice a week for essential goods

The Bombay high court (HC) disposed of a petition seeking vehicular access to Matheran to supply essential goods to the Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) after the

The Bombay high court (HC) disposed of a petition seeking vehicular access to Matheran to supply essential goods to the Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) after the interim monitoring committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) said the local civic body could use Bharat Stage-IV compliant vehicles to transport goods once a week. The court, while accepting the committee’s decision to use the railways to supply goods to the core area, said till the railway starts transporting goods, vehicular access would have to be provided thrice a week instead of one, which MoEF agreed to.

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A single bench of justice SJ Kathawalla, while hearing the petition filed by former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Suresh Lad on Saturday through video conferencing, was informed by MoEF that the interim monitoring committee appointed on May 13 had considered the fact that the tourist season for Matheran from March to May was lost which resulted in genuine problems for the residents of the hill station.

The committee under the chairmanship of Konkan division commissioner Shivaji Daund on Friday heard the issues raised by the petitioner and observed, “The peak tourism season of Matheran hill station (March to May) was lost due to lockdown since March 2020 and this has resulted into huge economic losses to the people of Matheran and reduced their paying capacity. Undoubtedly, the current pandemic situation arising out of Covid- 19 is unique and has increased hardships for people of Matheran.”

The committee unanimously passed a decision to request railway authorities to operationalise the line from Dasturi Naka to Matheran station for transporting goods. The committee decided to send a proposal to the divisional railway manager of Central Railway for approving goods transport by attaching dedicated goods bogies.

The minutes of the committee’s decision further said till the transportation of goods via railways does not commence, it would allow the Matheran municipal corporation to hire goods transport vehicles meeting environmental norms to ferry essential goods every Wednesday. The same would be applicable till September.

Advocate Gaurav Parkar, representing the petitioner, objected to once a week vehicular access stating the needs of the residents would remain unfulfilled and urged that the frequency be increased. The court accepted the same and modified the monitoring committee’s decision to allow environment compliant vehicles ply thrice a week and disposed of the petition.